IN THE 1970s, Saturday nights meant snuggling down in a comfy armchair to watch The Generation Game. Come 6.30pm everyone knew it was time to stop doing chores or homework.

Bruce Forsyth and his glamorous co-hosts on the 1970s Generation Game [PH]

Dads stopped reading the football scores in the paper. Mums put their feet up. Even teenagers would come out of a sulk while it was on and enjoy the silly banter and the even sillier games.

At other times it might be Blankety Blank or 3-2-1. For the British viewer a good game show was an essential component in a decent evening of enjoyable telly. At its peak, 20 million viewers watched The Generation Game and now, after a 12-year gap, what is arguably the best-loved game show is coming back to our screens.

There will however be one crucial difference. The new Gen Game (as it’s known within the Beeb) host will be a woman and the name in the frame – as Isla St Clair would say to Larry Grayson – is comedian Miranda Hart.

She has very big shoes to fill. Her predecessors are Sir Bruce Forsyth (a personal hero of hers), the aforementioned Larry Grayson and Jim Davidson who all brought their own distinctive style to the show while preserving its essential character. But she also faces a bigger task. Hart will be taking up the mantle of a deeply cherished British tradition.

Game shows can evoke memories and bring on pangs of nostalgia like nothing else

Game shows can evoke memories and bring on pangs of nostalgia like nothing else. They are like the buttons in a lift – press one and you are transported to another era. The heyday for game shows was the 1970s, a time when the old values of the 1950s and 1960s were finally crumbling but innocence had yet to be crushed by cynicism. This was before homes had multiple TV sets so the family sat down together in one room to watch the box.

The formats were simple enough for anyone of any age to follow – guessing the price of an item (The Price Is Right) or whether the next playing card was more likely to be higher or lower (Play Your Cards Right). They were rarely a test of knowledge. Unlike University Challenge, they didn’t leave the viewer feeling dim.

There were no worries about bad language (contestants on Blockbusters asking “Can I a have a P, please Bob?” was about as smutty as it got) and everyone was smiley and polite. You didn’t get fights breaking out as they do on Jeremy Kyle. There might be silly stunts and ribbing from the host but the intention was never to humiliate. The point was to be a good sport. It was not about the prizes either because most of them were rubbish – toasters, food mixers, maybe a package holiday, all of which were no longer unaffordable luxuries to many people.

Ted Rodgers and mascot Dusty Bin in 3-2-1, 1979 [REX]

Most of the popular game shows on British TV were imported from elsewhere. Blockbusters and Celebrity Squares were American while The Generation Game started out as Een van de acht (“One of the eight”) on Dutch television. They were all tweaked to fit in with British sensibilities which are often more robust. It is doubtful that Brucie’s cheeky put downs would have gone over so well in America, say.

Gimmicks and catchphrases were an essential indicator of popularity. The Generation Game had “the old scoreboard” and the conveyor with the cuddly toys. The best catchphrases outlived the programme that spawned them and entered common parlance. When looking over someone’s new outfit we still say: “Give us a twirl” just as Bruce did to Anthea Redfern every week. We draw attention to a person’s achievements with: “Didn’t he do well?”

But Larry Grayson stopped saying “What a lot you’ve got, you have got a lot” on the Generation Game because it didn’t catch on. And while Chris Tarrant may well be heartily sick of people saying: “But we don’t want to give you that” as they snatch things out of his grasp, how long before he is yearning to hear it again now that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has ended?

Nowadays, game shows tend to be more niche, designed to appeal to a particular sector of the viewing audience rather than a broad spectrum – and huge viewing figures are a thing of the past.

Miranda Hart is a genuine fan of Forsyth and The Generation Game so she is certain to bring great enthusiasm to her role as presenter. Her acting in her own comedy show and in Call The Midwife shows warmth and she has the quick wit you need to cope with slapstick and mistakes. The ultimate endorsement will come if, after watching her first show, viewers are moved to turn to each other and say: “Didn’t she do well?”

A white-suited Terry Wogan hosts Blankety Blank [PH]

Famous names in the frames

BLANKETY BLANK

It originated in Australia and required contestants to fill in the blank word in a well-known phrase.The UK show first aired in 1979 hosted by Terry Wogan. Les Dawson took over in 1984.The notoriously cheap prizes were a running gag. When a trip on Concorde was offered one week, Dawson told the audience, “Don’t get excited – it just goes to the end of the runway and back.”

The consolation prize of a chequebook and pen acquired an iconic status. The BBC cancelled the show in 1989 but revived it in 1998 with Lily Savage (aka Paul O’Grady) as host. It moved to ITV in 2001 and finally ended a year later.

CELEBRITY SQUARES

Bob Monkhouse hosted this British version of an American show called Hollywood Squares. the game was based on noughts and crosses. Two contestants had to guess which one of nine celebrities had the right answer to a general knowledge question.

The celebrities were seated in boxes stacked up to look like a giant noughts and crosses grid. The show ran from 1975-79 and then from 1993-97. A new version will be broadcast later this year hosted by actor Warwick Davis.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

Another American import, it first aired in 1984 with Leslie Crowther as the host who summoned unsuspecting contestants from the studio audience with the words: “Come on down!” They had to guess the price of various items to progress to the next “showcase” round.

The value of the prizes was restricted by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Bob Warman replaced Crowther in 1988 and Bruce Forsyth took over from 1995-2001. The show was revived from 2006-7 with Joe Pasquale hosting.

THE GOLDEN SHOT

Based on a German show, it ran from 1967 to 1975. Contestants guided a crossbow attached to a camera to shoot at an exploding target. For the jackpot they had to sever a thread. The show was famous for Bernie The Bolt, who loaded the crossbow, and hostess Anne Aston who struggled with arithmetic.

Bob Monkhouse hosted from 1967-72 and again from 1974-75. In between were comedians Norman Vaughan and Charlie Williams, the first black TV game show host. When Monkhouse returned his new assistant was Wei Wei Wong, one of the first prominent Asians on British TV.